Facilitating Regulatory Compliance Through Managed Hosting Services

For medical or financial companies, keeping their operations properly updated according to industry standards is critical, not only to protect sensitive client data, but also to prevent them from facing the harsh penalties that follow any violations. By working with a managed hosting service provider that has extensive expertise in compliance-based hosting, a company can ensure that its IT infrastructure will comply with the guidelines imposed by standards such as HIPAA HITECH and PCI DSS.

As more organizations transfer vital information electronically, they also have to comply with industry and federal regulations and security standards that cover their specific business sector. Companies that fail to meet these standards may be liable for harsh fines and legal action that can disrupt their operations or damage their reputation.

For instance, a merchant that has experienced a security breach due to PCI non-compliance can be penalized with a fine of up to $500,000 per incident. Any systems involved in the breach cannot be used during follow-up investigations, potentially crippling a business' operations.

Medical companies found to be in violation of HIPAA standards, on the other hand, are liable for a maximum penalty of up to $1.5 million, as dictated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

If a company lacks the necessary personnel or resources to effect changes to its infrastructure, a managed hosting provider can provide a cost-effective means to achieve industry compliance.

For starters, a service provider's security experts can offer critical support for a company being assessed either by a PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), or its potential clients. This support will include answering questionnaires, addressing interviews, and fulfilling the audit requirements of industry standards, including PCI DSS, HIPAA and ISO 17799/27002, for example.

As part of its overall managed hosting solution, a service provider can also implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect a company's networks being used for PCI transactions from threats such as SQL injection, buffer overflow attacks, and malware. A Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) will also be applied to detect threats within the network and to complement the WAF's guard against external risks.

Regular log analysis, audits, and host vulnerability scans will be implemented as part of a provider's security and compliance solution to spot possible data breaches. Aside from providing comprehensive security and industry compliance, a service provider's managed hosting solution can also help optimize the performance of a client's IT infrastructure.

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